Automatic data placement manager in multi-tier all-flash datacenter

ABSTRACT

A system for performing auto-tiering is disclosed. The system may include a plurality of storage devices offering a plurality of resources and organized into storage tiers. The storage devices may store data for virtual machines. A receiver may receive I/O commands and performance data for the virtual machines. A transmitter may transmit responses to the I/O commands. An auto-tiering controller may select storage tiers to store the data for the virtual machines and may migrate data between storage tiers responsive to the performance data. The selection of the storage tiers may optimize the performance of all virtual machines across all storage tiers, factoring the change in performance of the virtual machines and a migration cost to migrate data between storage tiers.

RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 62/534,647, filed Jul. 19, 2017, which isincorporated by reference herein for all purposes.

FIELD

The inventive concepts relate generally to data storage, and moreparticularly to automatically managing in which storage tier virtualmachine data is stored.

BACKGROUND

Conventional data storage centers have relied on hard disk drives andother older forms of data storage. Since hard disk drives and otherolder forms of data storage have relatively high latencies, virtualmachines cache frequently accessed data in local storage. Often, therelative benefit of caching data is a tenfold or greater increase indata access times.

But as flash storage becomes more common and more affordable, thisdifferential in access time between the data storage center and thecache is reduced. This reduced benefit of caching means that data isfrequently stored exclusively in the data center and not cached at all.When combined with the fact that storing redundant copies (in both thecache and the data center) of data in flash storage is expensive, itbecomes more important that the data be stored in the data storagecenter in the most efficient manner.

In addition, unlike conventional storage devices such as hard diskdrives, flash storage may have different specializations. Asconventional storage devices do not consider device specializations, anytier choices for data storage using conventional technology issuboptimal.

A need remains for a way to more optimally store data in data storagecenters using flash storage that offers both satisfactory access timeand utilizes any specializations offered by different storage tiers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows networked machines that may host virtual machines and use astorage pool equipped to perform auto-tiering, according to anembodiment of the inventive concept.

FIG. 2 shows additional details of the machines of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows added detail of one server of FIG. 1 interacting with thestorage pool of FIG. 1 with auto-tiering, according to an embodiment ofthe inventive concept.

FIG. 4 shows different resources available offered by different storagedevices.

FIG. 5 shows a virtual machine of FIG. 3 being migrated from one storageto another.

FIGS. 6A-6B show optimal assignments of virtual machines to storagetiers at different points in time.

FIG. 7 shows the I/O Filter of FIG. 3 injecting latency and determiningperformance data for the virtual machine of FIG. 3.

FIG. 8 shows details of the Auto-Tiering Controller of FIG. 3.

FIG. 9 shows the conversion of the performance data of FIG. 7 into amatrix correlating the virtual machines, the storage tiers, and theresources of the storage tiers.

FIG. 10 shows a linear regression of the performance data of FIG. 7.

FIG. 11 shows specialization information about the storage tiers of FIG.3.

FIG. 12 shows the computation of a score matrix to be used in migratingthe virtual machines of FIG. 3 to different storage tiers of FIG. 3.

FIG. 13 shows the relationship between monitoring epochs and migrationepochs.

FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of an example procedure for the I/O Filter ofFIG. 3 to inject latency into Input/Output (I/O) commands to generatethe performance data of FIG. 7, according to an embodiment of theinventive concept.

FIGS. 15A-15B show a flowchart of an example procedure for theAuto-Tiering Controller of FIG. 3 to manage migration of virtualmachines across storage tiers, according to an embodiment of theinventive concept.

FIG. 16 shows a flowchart of an example procedure for the Auto-TieringController of FIG. 3 to generate the resource matrix of FIG. 9,according to an embodiment of the inventive concept.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the inventiveconcept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth to enable a thorough understanding of the inventive concept. Itshould be understood, however, that persons having ordinary skill in theart may practice the inventive concept without these specific details.In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components,circuits, and networks have not been described in detail so as not tounnecessarily obscure aspects of the embodiments.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. maybe used herein to describe various elements, these elements should notbe limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish oneelement from another. For example, a first module could be termed asecond module, and, similarly, a second module could be termed a firstmodule, without departing from the scope of the inventive concept.

The terminology used in the description of the inventive concept hereinis for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is notintended to be limiting of the inventive concept. As used in thedescription of the inventive concept and the appended claims, thesingular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the pluralforms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It willalso be understood that the term “and/or” as used herein refers to andencompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of theassociated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms“comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification,specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations,elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence oraddition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations,elements, components, and/or groups thereof. The components and featuresof the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.

All-flash storage systems will be adopted in the enterprise data centerin the near future thanks to the fact that Solid State Drive (SSD)prices continue to decrease and SSD capacity continues to increase. As aresult, the advantages of hard disk drives (HDDs) are fading out, to bereplaced with low end SSDs with large capacities, such as Multi-LevelCell (MLC) SSDs. Therefore, a cost-effective design will introducemulti-tier SSDs, with each tier potentially having a unique specialty,such as high speed, large capacity, good at read Input/Output (I/O)commands, long lifetime, etc.

On the other hand, a typical enterprise data center use case uses ahypervisor-virtual machine (VM) structure. The I/O workload patterns ofVMs may differ, and the performance improvements they might see fromupgrading them to a higher tier of service are not same. Motivated bythis, a full solution called “AutoTiering” may handle VM allocation andmigration in the all-flash multi-tier data center to best utilize thestorage resource, optimize the performance, and reduce the migrationoverhead. AutoTiering may also consider both historical and predictedperformance factors.

VMs run a guest Operating System (OS), such as Linux and Windows, andapplications. VMs are isolated from each other. Cloud service vendors“rent” these VMs to users. VMs may have different workloadcharacteristics based on user applications, and thus they may havedifferent level of sensitivities to storage device speeds.

VM hypervisor software, such as Xen, KVM, and VMware, may host multiplevirtual machines (VMs) within a single server. VM hypervisor software isresponsible for scheduling, resource management, system softwareApplication Programming Interfaces (APIs) and hardware virtualization.Embodiments of the inventive concept may include an AutoTiering daemoninstalled at the VM hypervisor level, whose job is to communicate withthe AutoTiering I/O Filter and the AutoTiering Controller.

All VM servers may be connected to a centralized storage pool to sharethe backend all-flash multiple-tier SSD disks, which may include devicessuch as Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) SSDs, 3D XPoint Non-VolatileMemory (NVM) SSDs, and MLC/Triple level Cells (TLC)/Quad Level Cells(QLC) SSDs. Each tier may have a different specialty, such as fastspeed, large storage capacity, etc.

AutoTiering may include three components: an AutoTiering I/O Filter, anAutoTiering Daemon, and an AutoTiering Controller.

The AutoTiering I/O Filter driver may be attached to every VM (i.e.,Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) files) being managed. The AutoTiering I/OFilter driver may collect I/O-related statistics as well as runningspecial latency tests on every VMDK. The data may be collected at somesample period rate and the results may be sent to the AutoTiering Daemonon the host system responsible for collecting all data from all theVMDKs.

The AutoTiering Daemons may run on the VM hypervisor of all physicalmachines. The AutoTiering Daemons track the workload change (I/O accesspattern change) of the VM server, and collects the results of injectedlatencies tests from the AutoTiering I/O Filter to send to theAutoTiering Controller.

The AutoTiering Controller may run on a dedicated server or the embeddedsystem in the storage system. The AutoTiering Controller may makedecisions to trigger migration based on the predicted VM performance ifthe VM is migrated to another tier as well its corresponding migrationoverhead.

From each VM point of view, the reason for a certain VM to be migratedfrom one tier to the other is that the VM might perform better (lessaverage I/O latency, higher I/O Operations Per Second (IOPS), higherthroughput, etc.) after migration. But at the same time, there is acorresponding migration cost, since it is relatively expensive tomigrate a VM from one tier to another and is not ignorable.

From the global optimization point of view, it is hard to satisfy allVMs requests to be migrated to their favorite tiers at the same time,due to resource constraints and their corresponding Service LevelAgreements (SLAs). The global optimization should consider changes ofVMs over time as well as previous migration effects. For example, thecurrent best allocation solution may lead to a bad situation in thefuture due to changing VM behaviors during runtime. Thus, a globaloptimization should consider the potential benefits and penalties,migration overhead, historical and predicted performance of VMs on eachtier, SLA (service level agreement), etc. Based on this information,AutoTiering may attempt to reach an optimized solution for multi-tierall-flash storage systems using Eq. 1-6.

TABLE 1 Notations. Notation Meaning ν VM id, ν ϵ [1, ν_(max)], whereν_(max) is the last VM. t Tier id, t ϵ [1, t_(max)], where t_(max) isthe last tier. t_(ν, τ) VM ν's hosting tier during epoch τ. k Differenttypes of resources, t ϵ [1, k_(max)], such as IOPS, throughput, storagesize, etc. τ Temporal epoch id, where τ ϵ [0, +∞). α_(k) Weight ofresource k. β Weight of migration cost. r(ν, t_(ν, τ), τ, Predicted typeof k resource usage of VM ν running on tier k) t_(ν, τ). m(ν,t_(ν, τ−1), Migration cost of VM ν during epoch τ from tier t_(ν, τ−1)to t_(ν)

tier t_(ν, τ). k_(stg) Storage size. Pr(ν, t, τ), Throughput of read orwrite commands of VM v on tier t Pw(ν, t, τ) during epoch τ. Pr(Λ, t,τ), All remaining available read or write throughput of tier t Pw(Λ, t,τ) during epoch τ. W_(ν, τ) Weight of VM ν. Γ_(k) Upper bound (inpercentage) of each type of resource that may be used. R(t_(ν, τ), k)Total capacity of k-th type of resource on tier t_(ν, τ)

indicates data missing or illegible when filed

Minimize: $\begin{matrix}{{\sum\limits_{{\forall v},{\forall t},{\forall\tau}}{w_{v,\tau} \cdot \left\lbrack {{\sum\limits_{\forall k}{\alpha_{k} \cdot {r\left( {v,t_{v,\tau},\tau,k} \right)}}} - {\beta \cdot {m\left( {c,t_{v,{\tau - 1}},t_{v,\tau}} \right)}}} \right\rbrack}}{{Subject}\mspace{14mu} {to}\text{:}}} & (1) \\{{{r\left( {v,t_{v,\tau},\tau,k} \right)} = {{r_{Prd}\left( {v,t_{v,{\tau - 1}},t_{v,\tau},{\tau - 1},k} \right)} \geq 0}},{\forall v},{\forall t},{\forall\tau}} & (2) \\{{{r\left( {v,t_{v,\tau_{1}},\tau_{1},k_{s}} \right)} \equiv {r\left( {v,t_{v,\tau_{2}},\tau_{2},k_{s}} \right)} \geq 0},{\forall\tau_{1}},{\tau_{2} \in \left\lbrack {0,{+ \infty}} \right)}} & (3) \\{{m\left( {v,t_{v,{\tau - 1}},t_{v,\tau}} \right)} = \frac{r\left( {v,t_{v,{\tau - 1}},{\tau - 1},k_{s}} \right)}{\begin{matrix}{\min\left( {{{\Pr \left( {A,t_{v,{\tau - 1}},{\tau - 1}} \right)} + {\Pr \left( {v,t_{v,{\tau - 1}},{\tau - 1}} \right)}},} \right.} \\\left. {{Pw}\left( {A,t_{v,{\tau - 1}},{\tau - 1}} \right)} \right)\end{matrix}}} & (4) \\{{t_{v,\tau} \neq \varnothing},{\forall v},{\forall\tau}} & (5) \\{{{\sum\limits_{\forall v}{r\left( {v,t_{v,\tau},\tau,k} \right)}} \leq {\Gamma_{k} \cdot {R\left( {t_{v,\tau},k} \right)}}},{\forall t},{\forall k},{\forall\tau}} & (6)\end{matrix}$

Eq. 1 shows the objective function. The main idea is to maximize theentire performance gain minus migration cost: “PerformanceGain−Performance Penalty”. The inner “sum” operator conducts a weightedsum of the usage of all types of resources (such as TOPS, throughput,and storage size, etc.) of each VM, assuming migrating v from tiert_(τ-1) to t_(τ). Notice that migration here does not migrate a VM fromone host server to another: only the backend VMDK files are migratedfrom one SSD tier to the other. Thus, non-disk-I/O related resourcessuch as CPU, memory, etc. do not need to be considered. The outside“sum” operator further iterates all possible migration cases. Noticethat the weight parameter W_(ν,τ) may reflect the SLA of each VM.

Eq. 2 shows that a prediction model function may be utilized to predictthe performance gain. Eq. 3 ensures that storage size (i.e., VMDK size)will not change before and after each migration. Eq. 4 estimates thetemporal migration overhead. In detail, the temporal migration overheadis the size of VM to be migrated divided by the bottleneck imposed byreading and writing the data on the respective tiers. In detail, Pr(Λ,t_(ν,τ-1), τ−1) represents the available remaining speed, and since theVM may be paused during migration, the throughput used by this VM isalso available (i.e., Pr(Λ, t_(ν,τ-1), τ−1) may be added back). Pw(Λ,t_(ν,τ-1), τ−1) represents the migrate-in write speed. Eq. 5 reflectsthe need to guarantee that a VM is hosted by one and only one disk tier.Finally, Eq. 6 shows the resource constraints, where Γ_(k) is a presetupper bound (in percentage) of each type of resource that may be used.

It is hard to conduct global optimization for all epochs during runtimedue to the following challenges:

1) The system has almost no information about the future workloadpatterns, so it is hard to conduct global optimization for all τ timeperiods during runtime.

2) When performing global optimization, the decisions for each epoch arenot independent, which means that traditional sub-optimal-baseddynamical programming techniques may not be used to solve the problem byoptimizing each epoch's objective function value of “PerformanceGain−Performance Penalty”.

3) Depending on the complexity of the performance prediction model(which predicts a VM's performance on other tiers without migration),the optimization problem may easily become NP-hard.

Therefore, to solve this problem in acceptable time, some constraintsneed to be relaxed.

Instead of attempting to perform global optimizing for all time, asolution may be sought to only optimize for each epoch (i.e., runtimegreedy).

The problem then is similar to a weighted knapsack problem. Furthermore,since each tier's performance “specialty” (such as high TOPS, highthroughput, large space, small Write Amplification Factor (WAF)function, large over-provisioning, and large program/erase (P/E) cycles,etc.) are known in advance, a “score” may be calculated for each VM'sestimated performance focusing on a specialty resource dimension (forexample, TOPS and throughput for tier 1), and make migration decisionsbased on the performance-specialty score ranking, together withcorresponding estimation of migration overhead.

Two different epochs may be scheduled: a monitoring epoch, representingthe frequency for evaluating the performance, and regresses theperformance estimation model, which may be set to any desired interval:for example 15 minutes; and a migration epoch, representing thefrequency with which VM migration from one tier to the other may beperformed, which may be set to any desired interval: for example, 1 dayor 1 week. The monitoring epoch and the migration epoch are notnecessarily fixed: they may be determined using functions to be able toadaptively adjust their sizes during runtime. Nor does the migrationepoch need to be an integer multiple of the monitoring epoch. Thesmaller these window sizes are, the more frequently the storage systemis monitored and measured and VMs are migrated. System administratorsmay balance the tradeoff between accuracy and migration cost byconducting sensitivity analysis before deployment.

In order to estimate VM's performance on other tiers without migration,a VM's performance on another tier may be “emulated” by manuallyinjecting additional latencies to each VM's I/O commands and measuringthe resultant effect on total I/O latency by calling AutoTiering I/OFilter APIs (e.g., VMware vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering).

The change in performance of a VM in different tiers may be modeledusing a linear curve. The graph of Average I/O Latency vs InjectedLatency may be regressed into a linear equation. The slope of the linemay be dependent on how synchronous or asynchronous the application isthat is running at the time. Synchronous and asynchronous applicationsdiffer in how they operate, which is reflected in the slopes of thelines. Specifically, when synchronous applications send I/O commands,the synchronous applications wait for the I/O commands to complete,which blocks the progress of an application while the communication isin progress, and leaves system resources idle. In contrast, asynchronousapplications may send I/O commands and may perform other processingbefore the transmission has finished. These facts mean that asynchronousapplications tend to be less affected by the latency of I/O commands,but that improvement comes at a cost: the asynchronous applications donot know when the response will be sent, and have to be able to receivethe response at any time.

VM sensitivities to tier speed differ. A VM with synchronousapplications is more sensitive to tier speed change than a VM withasynchronous applications. The main reason is that asynchronousapplications usually have less frequent I/O commands to flush, and alesser reliance on I/O timing.

Motivated by these observations, a “tier speed sensitivity calibrationsession” (TSSCS) may be used to predict how much a VM might gain (or bepenalized) by migrating the VM to a higher (or lower) speed tier withoutreal migrating. In detail, TSSCS has the following properties:

1) Light-weight: Running on the AutoTiering I/O Filter, TSSCS injectssome latencies into I/O commands for each VM, and takes a very shorttime in order not to impact current hosting workloads.

2) Multiple samples per latency per TSSCS: To improve the emulationaccuracy for each VM's performance under each tier, the results obtainedwith the same injected latency of each tier may be averaged.

3) Multiple latencies per TSSCS: To refine the regression, multipledifferent latencies may be injected. Moreover, the injected latencies donot have to be limited to the available tiers in the current storagepool. Instead, additional latency data points may be used to improve theregression accuracy.

4) Multiple TSSCS during runtime: The TSSCS may be triggeredperiodically to update the curve and regression function.

Based on the corresponding performance, the correlation betweenperformance gain vs. tier speed may be determined by linear regression,which reflects the sensitivity of each VM to the disk speed improvementor decline. It is possible for the curve to be regressed into apolynomial or non-linear function, but changing the regression does notaffect how AutoTiering operates. Given the injected latency curves foreach VM at the current moment, the IOPS, throughput, storage size, etc.for each VM at each tier may be calculated. Notice that while TOPS,throughput, and storage size are the focus, other type of resources mayalso be considered.

Table 2 summarize notations used in this subsection, and Table 3 furthershows the result of estimated average I/O latencies for an example usingthree VMs under three different tiers.

TABLE 2 Notations. Notation Meaning L_(t) Original average I/O latency(without injected latency) of tier t. b_(ν), m_(ν) Two parameters for VMx's regressed tier speed sensitivity correlation model, i.e., y = mx +b, where y is the average I/O latency and x is the injected latency.s_(ν) Average I/O size of VM ν. S_(ν), VM[v].size Storage size of VM ν.maxIOPS[t], Preset available resource caps of tier t, where we set itmaxMBPS[t], to be 90% of the total capacity of each type of resource.maxSize[t]

TABLE 3 Example of estimate average I/O latencies without migration.Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 V1 Avg I/O b1 m₁(L₂ − L₁) + b₁ m₁(L₃ − L₁) + b₁Latency (μs) V2 Avg I/O m₂(L₁ − L₂) + b₂ b₂ m₂(L₃ − L₂) + b₂ Latency(μs) V3 Avg I/O m₃(L₁ − L₃) + b₃ m₃(L₂ − L₃) + b₃ b₃ Latency (μs)

Tier speed sensitivity calibration session (TSSCS) may iterate for eachVM and each tier in the storage system. It may calculate the coefficientvariation (i.e., CV) of I/O latencies from samples for each injectedlatency. It may then calculate the average value of I/O latency for eachinjected latency. It may then average the CV value of all injectedlatencies, and based on the result, AutoTiering may define theconfidence in the injected latencies used to generate the linearregression for each VM, and therefore the confidence in then linearregression itself. The lower the CV is, the higher the confidence thisVM has. If the CV is larger than 1, the confidence may be set to a lowerbound that may be adjusted based on the system administrator'srequirement: for example, 0.05. Finally, TSSCS may call the regressionfunction to calculate corresponding m and b values. Notice that whileembodiments of the inventive concept may use a linear regression modelwith only two parameters in the returned tuple, the system administratormay add more items into the returned tuple based on their chosenregression model.

AutoTiering has three two-dimensional matrices to record three types ofresources, such as IOPS (I/O commands per second), throughput (megabytesper second, or MBPS), and storage size (bytes). Additional matrices forany other types of resources in the storage system may be added asdesired. In contrast with TOPS and throughput, the matrix for storagesize is relatively straightforward to obtain by calling the hypervisorAPIs to measure the storage size of each VM is occupying.

AutoTiering may estimate TOPS using the linear estimation based onregressed M and B values. Once the estimated average I/O latency resultsto calculate corresponding TOPS and throughput of each VM on differenttiers are obtained, TOPS and throughput may be calculated using thefollowing equations:

$\begin{matrix}{{IOPS} = \frac{{{avgIOSize}(v)} \times 10^{6}}{{avgIOLatency}\left( {v,t} \right)}} & (7) \\{{Throughput} = {{avgIOsize} \times {IOPS}}} & (8)\end{matrix}$

Since different types of recourse have different units, it would bedifficult to put them together in a single multi-dimensional matrix.Therefore, each resource may be converted into a percentage of the totalavailable resource capacity of each tier. An example of such anormalization is shown in Table 5.

TABLE 5 Example of normalized performance matrix of 3 VMs if they arerunning tier 1. IOPS Throughput Storage VM1$\frac{10^{6}}{b_{1} \times {{maxIOPS}\lbrack t\rbrack}}$$\frac{s_{1} \times 10^{6}}{b_{1} \times {{maxMBPS}\lbrack t\rbrack}}$$\frac{S_{1}}{{maxSize}\lbrack t\rbrack}$ VM2$\frac{10^{6}}{\left\lbrack {{m_{2}\left( {L_{1} - L_{2}} \right)} + b_{2}} \right\rbrack \times {{maxIOPS}\lbrack t\rbrack}}$$\frac{S_{2} \times 10^{6}}{\left\lbrack {{m_{2}\left( {L_{1} - L_{2}} \right)} + b_{2}} \right\rbrack \times {{maxMBPS}\lbrack t\rbrack}}$$\frac{S_{2}}{{maxSize}\lbrack t\rbrack}$ VM3$\frac{10^{6}}{\left\lbrack {{m_{3}\left( {L_{1} - L_{3}} \right)} + b_{3}} \right\rbrack \times {{maxIOPS}\lbrack t\rbrack}}$$\frac{s_{3} \times 10^{6}}{\left\lbrack {{m_{3}\left( {L_{1} - L_{3}} \right)} + b_{3}} \right\rbrack \times {{maxMBPS}\lbrack t\rbrack}}$$\frac{S_{3}}{{maxSize}\lbrack t\rbrack}$

The calculated score should reflect the following facts:

1) Characteristics of both tier and VM: the score should reflect eachtier's specialty and each VM's workload characteristics if running oneach tier. Thus, each VM's score on each tier is calculated separately.

2) SLA weights: VMs are not equal since they have different SLA weights,as shown in Eq. 1.

3) Confidence of estimation: the coefficient variation calculated inperformance matrices may be used to reflect the confidence ofestimation.

4) History and migration cost: a convolutional aging factor may be usedto include history scores into the score calculation. Migration cost mayalso be estimated and included in the score calculation.

Based on user configuration or default configuration, the resourcesoffered by each tier are known in advance. AutoTiering may optimize onany number of resources for a given tier. To reflect the specialty, atier specialty matrix may be used. An example tier specialty matrix isshown in Table 6. In Table 6, an all-or-nothing granularity forspecialty configuration is used. A cell with 1 means the current tierhas a speciality in that the corresponding type of resource. Otherwise,the tier is not optimized for that type of resource. But in otherembodiments of the inventive concept, the values in this matrix may notnecessarily be 0 and 1. System administrators may set any weight instead0 and 1 if they want a more fine-grained granularity to controlspecialty. System administrators may also extend this matrix by addingmore type of resources (i.e., more rows).

TABLE 6 Example of tier specialty matrix. Throughput Storage Size IOPS(MBPS) (bytes) Tier 1 1 1 0 Tier 2 0 1 0 Tier 3 0 0 1

It is helpful if the tiers are sorted by order ofmost-to-least-expensive-tier by default, and this order is regarded as apriority order during migration decision making period. Notice thatsystem administrators may also change this order based on theirpreference of each tier.

The next question is “how to reflect each VM's performance on each tierwhile reflecting each tier's specialty?”. Since the term “performance”considers multiple dimensions or types of resource (such as TOPS,throughput, and storage size), a weighted sum is used to reflect eachtier's specialty/specialties. An “orthogonal match”, which is aper-VM-per-tier multiplication operation of “specialty” matrix and VMcapacity utilization rate matrix, may be used, as shown in Eq. 9:

$\begin{matrix}{\begin{bmatrix}{{{{VMCapRateMat}\lbrack t\rbrack}\lbrack v\rbrack}.{IOPS}} \\{{{{VMcapRateMat}\lbrack t\rbrack}\lbrack v\rbrack}.{MBPS}} \\{{{{VMCapRateMat}\lbrack t\rbrack}\lbrack v\rbrack}.{size}}\end{bmatrix} \times {\quad\left\lbrack {{{{specialty}\lbrack t\rbrack}.{IOPS}},{{{specialty}\lbrack t\rbrack}.{MBPS}},{{{specialty}\lbrack t\rbrack}.{size}}} \right\rbrack}} & (9)\end{matrix}$

Additionally, AutoTiering also allows system administrators toconfiguration different weights for each type of resource.

An example of calculating a capacity score for tier 1 is shown in Table7. Tuples of (IOPS %, MBPS %, size %) in the first row (“capacityRate”)are estimated VM utilization rates of each type of resource on thistier. In this example, none of these values is greater than 1, so allthree pass the constraint test. Finally, assume the specialty matrix isas shown in Table 6.

TABLE 7 Example of capacity rate, constraint, and capacity score valuesof 3 VMs if they are running on tier 1. VM1 VM2 VM3 capacityRate (0.5,0.6, 0.3) (0.2, 0.3, 0.3) (0.1, 0.5, 0.4) capacityConstraint Pass PassPass currCapScore (0.5 + 0.6)/2 = (0.2 + 0.3)/2 = (0.1 + 0.5)/ 0.55 0.252 = 0.30

The final score is a convolutional sum of the historical score, thecurrent score, and the migration cost, as shown in Eq. 10:

totalScore=agingFactor×historicalScore+currCapacityScore−weightMig×migrationCost  (10)

This final score has three components:

1) historicalScore: to avoid the case that some VMs are frequentlymigrated and handed over between two tiers due to making decision onlybased on recent epochs, which may contain I/O spikes or bursts,AutoTiering considers historicalScore, with a preset agingFactor tofadeout old scores. Initially, any VM that is not currently assigned tothe specific tier will receive a zero score.

2) currCapScore: the current capacity score is calculated as describedabove with reference to Eq. (9) and Table 7. Again, any VM that is notcurrently assigned to the specific tier will receive a zero score.

3) migrationCost: AutoTiering calculates the bottleneck of migrationspeed by selecting the smaller value of migrate-out and migrate-inavailable throughputs. AutoTiering returns a result of the size of theVM divided by the migration speed as the migration temporal cost.

To calculate the score, for each tier, AutoTiering may iterate itshosting VMs and check whether the current VM exceeds the upper bounds ofany types of resources of the current tier t. If the VM exceeds anyresource capacity upper bound, then the corresponding VM capacityutilization rate may be set to 0, and the score of this VM v on the tiert is set to −1. Otherwise, resource usage is converted to percentcapacities. The total score is then calculated as above. Notice thatAutoTiering also allows the system administrators to control weights andfor each type of resource by adjusting the various weight values for theresources.

AutoTiering conducts migration in the “long-term of view”. That is,AutoTiering follows a relatively low frequency for migration, sincemigration operations are relatively expensive.

AutoTiering may check whether a migration operation is needed and maytrigger the corresponding migration if necessary. AutoTiering mayiterate over each tier, preferably in the order ofmost-to-least-expensive-tier. Notice that system administrator maychange this order based on their preference of each tier. AutoTieringthen sorts the tier scores in descending order. For each VM in thissorted list, AutoTiering may skip the VM if:

1) the current iterated VM has already been assigned (migrated) thistime, or

2) there is no score for this VM on this tier because it exceeds thecapacity limitation of this tier, or

3) there is not enough resource capacity left on the tier t for this VMv during assignment.

Otherwise, AutoTiering may assign VMs from the most to least score oneby one to this tier. Notice that if the VM is already on its targettier, this assignment does not move the VM. Once a VM is assigned toanother tier, the VM may be flagged for migration, which involvescopying the data (VMDK files) from the source storage tier to thedestination storage tier.

The conventional data center stores data using HDDs. HDDs are typicallyfairly similar to each other in most senses, differing primarily intheir cost per gigabyte, their read/write speed, and their overallcapacity. As might be expected, the larger the capacity or the fasterthe read/write speed, the most expensive the HDD. But even consideringthese differences, HDDs have an average cost of $0.25/gigabyte, and havean average read/write speed of 10 milliseconds (ms). But even 10 ms maybe a long time to wait in computer operations, generally resulting insome data being cached locally to improve access time.

On the other hand, SSDs may offer different specializations. Some SSDsmay have low read/write latency, others may have high bandwidth, stillothers may have large capacity, and still others may have low writeamplification factors. In this document, the term “resource” is used todescribe these specializations that individual storage devices mightoffer to a greater or lesser extent. Still other SSDs may offercombinations of these resources. These additional specializations offerbenefits to applications that may take advantage of these resources, butcomplicate the process of determining which SSD is best for a particularapplication.

In contrast to HDDs, SSDs are generally more expensive, with price pergigabyte ranging from $0.28 to $4.68, depending on the format. But SSDsare also generally much more responsive: read/write times may vary from1-2 ms to microseconds (μs) or even nanoseconds (ns), depending on theSSD format being used.

While the added resources offered by SSDs over HDDs are importantfactors in how best to assign applications to SSDs, it is the accesstime that most greatly affects how applications might be assigned toSSDs. Conventional caching algorithms assume a fairly large improvementin performance between storage layers: typically, a 10× improvement inperformance is expected from a local cache layer relative to HDDstorage. In addition, given that SSDs are more costly per gigabyte tostore data than HDDs, caching data would result in data being storedtwice, at some cost. Thus, conventional tiering and caching algorithmsproduce suboptimal results when using storage devices other than HDDs.

FIG. 1 shows networked machines that may host virtual machines and use astorage pool equipped to perform auto-tiering, according to anembodiment of the inventive concept. In FIG. 1, system 105 is shown.System 105 may include virtual machine servers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3.While FIG. 1 shows three servers, embodiments of the inventive conceptmay support any number of virtual machine servers.

Each of virtual machine servers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3 may includeprocessors 115-1, 115-2, and 115-3, respectively, and memories 120-1,120-2, and 120-3, respectively. Among other uses, processors 115-1,115-2, and 115-3 may execute applications, such as applications beingused by virtual machines running on virtual machine servers 110-1,110-2, and 110-3, and which may be stored in memories 120-1, 120-2, and120-3. Processors 115-1, 115-2, and 115-3 may be any varieties ofprocessor: for example, an Intel Xeon, Celeron, Itanium, or Atomprocessor, an AMD Opteron processor, an ARM processor, etc. While FIG. 1shows a single processor in each of virtual machine servers 110-1,110-2, and 110-3, virtual machine servers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3 mayeach include any number of processors, each of which may be single coreor multi-core processors, and may be mixed in any desired combination.Memories 120-1, 120-2, and 120-3 may each be any variety of memory, suchas flash memory, Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Static RandomAccess Memory (SRAM), Persistent Random Access Memory, FerroelectricRandom Access Memory (FRAM), or Non-Volatile Random Access Memory(NVRAM), such as Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) etc.Memories 120-1, 120-2, and 120-3 may each also be any desiredcombination of different memory types. Memories 120-1, 120-2, and 120-3may be controlled by a memory controller (not shown in FIG. 1), alsopart of virtual machine servers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3.

Virtual machine servers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3 may each also includelocal storage devices. For example, virtual machine servers 110-1,110-2, and 110-3 may include caches 125-1, 125-2, and 125-3,respectively. Local storage devices such as caches 125-1, 125-2, and125-3 may take any desired form, such as Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) orSolid State Drives (SSDs), and may use any desired connector, such asPeripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), PCI Express (PCIe), Serial ATAttachment (SATA), Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe), NVMe over Fabric(NVMeoF), M.2, or any other desired connection. In some embodiments ofthe inventive concept, virtual machine servers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3may omit caches 125-1, 125-2, and 125-3, relying solely on storage in adata center. In embodiments of the inventive concept that include caches125-1, 125-2, and 125-3, embodiments of the inventive concept may becombined with embodiments of the inventive concept disclosed in U.S.patent application Ser. No. ______, filed ______, which claims thepriority from U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/592,355, filed Nov.29, 2017, both of which are incorporated by reference herein for allpurposes.

System 105 may also include data center server 130. Like virtual machineservers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3, data center server 130 may includeprocessor 115-4 and memory 120-4. But data center server 130 may alsoinclude storage pool 135, receiver 140, and transmitter 145. Storagepool 135 may be a pool of storage devices organized into storage tiers.In some embodiments of the inventive concept, storage pool 135 mayinclude only SSD or other flash memory devices; in other embodiments ofthe inventive concept, storage pool 135 may include storage devicesusing other storage formats. Receiver 140 may receive Input/Output (I/O)commands and other data from virtual machine servers 110-1, 110-2, and110-3, and transmitter 145 may transmit data to virtual machine servers110-1, 110-2, and 110-3.

Virtual machine servers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3, and data center server130, are shown connected via network 150. Using network 150, virtualmachine servers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3 may send I/O commands to datacenter server 130, and may receive responses therefrom. Virtual machineservers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3 and data center server 130 may all bepart of a Local Area Network (LAN), or may include other network types,such as a Wide Area Network (WAN), or a global network such as theInternet. Network 150 may also be a combination of multiple suchnetworks, in any desired combination.

Although FIG. 1 depicts virtual machine servers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3and data center server 130 as servers (and could each be eitherstandalone or rack servers), embodiments of the inventive concept mayinclude virtual machine servers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3 and data centerserver 130 each of any desired type without limitation. For example, theservers shown in FIG. 1 could each be replaced with desktop or laptopcomputers or any other device that may benefit from embodiments of theinventive concept. Virtual machine servers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3 anddata center server 130 may each also include specialized portablecomputing devices, tablet computers, smartphones, and other computingdevices. For purposes of description, Virtual machine servers 110-1,110-2, and 110-3 are described as hosting virtual machines, butembodiments of the inventive concept may include machines that are notvirtual machines running on virtual machine servers 110-1, 110-2, and110-3.

FIG. 2 shows additional details of servers 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, and 130of FIG. 1. In FIG. 2, typically, server 110 (which may represent eitherof servers 110-1, 105-2, or 110-3 of FIG. 1) and server 130 include oneor more processors 115, which may include memory controllers 205 andclocks 210, which may be used to coordinate the operations of thecomponents of servers 110 and 130. Processors 115 may also be coupled tomemories 120, which may include random access memory (RAM), read-onlymemory (ROM), or other state preserving media, as examples. In server130, processor 115 may also be coupled to storage devices 135 (server110 may also include locally attached storage devices, but such is notrequired). In servers 110 and 130, processors 115 may also be coupled tonetwork connectors 215, which may be, for example, an Ethernet connectoror a wireless connector. Processors 115 may also be connected to buses220, to which may be attached user interfaces 225 and Input/Outputinterface ports that may be managed using Input/Output engines 230,among other components.

FIG. 3 shows added detail of virtual machine server 110 of FIG. 1interacting with storage pool 135 of FIG. 1 with auto-tiering, accordingto an embodiment of the inventive concept. In FIG. 3, virtual machineserver 110 is shown as hosting three virtual machines 305-1, 305-2, and305-3, but embodiments of the inventive concept may include any numberof virtual machines being hosted by virtual machine server 110. Whileonly virtual machine 305-3 is described in greater detail below,embodiments of the inventive concept include other virtual machines,such as virtual machines 305-1 and 305-2, operating similarly. Virtualmachine 305-3 is shown as including application 310 running on operatingsystem 315. Hypervisor 320 may manage the operations virtual machines305-1, 305-2, and 305-3 running on virtual machine server 110.

I/O filter 325 may act as a pass-through filter, receiving commands fromapplication 310 and sending them to hypervisor 320 for execution. I/Ofilter 325 may be any desired I/O filter, such as the VMware vSphereAPIs for I/O Filtering. But in addition to its normal operations, I/Ofilter 325 may inject latency into some I/O commands coming from virtualmachine 305-3, which may provide information about how to estimate VMperformance when supported by other storage tiers. The operation of I/Ofilter 325 is discussed further with reference to FIG. 7 below.

Auto-Tiering Daemon 330 may receive the performance data from I/O filter325 and forward it to Auto-Tiering Controller 335. Auto-Tiering Daemon330 may be part of hypervisor 320, or it may be a separate component. Inaddition, while Auto-Tiering Daemon 330 might just be a simplepass-through device, receiving data from I/O filter 325 and forwardingit to Auto-Tiering Controller 335, Auto-Tiering Daemon 330 may includesome of the functionality later attributed to Auto-Tiering Controller335, such as the operation to perform a linear regression on performancedata about virtual machines 305-1, 305-2, and 305-3. And in someembodiments of the inventive concept, Auto-Tiering Daemon 330 may beomitted entirely, with I/O filter 325 communicating directly withAuto-Tiering Controller 335 rather than permitting Auto-Tiering Daemon330 to collect and forward performance data.

Auto-Tiering Controller 335 is responsible for taking the performancedata received from Auto-Tiering Daemon 330 and using that data toestimate how virtual machine 305-3 would perform in each storage tier,after which Auto-Tiering Controller 335 may migrate data for virtualmachine 305-3 to another storage tier as appropriate. Storage pool 135,which is managed by Auto-Tiering Controller 335, may include any numberof storage tiers: FIG. 3 shows three tiers 340-1, 340-2, and 340-3.Within each tier, there may be any number of storage devices 345.

As mentioned above, each storage tier may offer specializations thattake advantage of specific resources offered by that storage tier. Forexample, storage tier 340-1 might offer fast read/write times, whereasstorage tier 340-3 might offer low write amplification factors. Forstorage tiers 340-1, 340-2, and 340-3 to offer specializations, storagedevices 345 within the storage tier should all offer the specialization.Thus, in some embodiments of the inventive concept, storage devices 345within a given storage tier are relatively or completely homogeneouswith respect one or more specialties: in some cases, storage devices 345within a given storage tier all storage devices 345 should be the samemodel of storage device.

In some embodiments of the inventive concept, Auto-Tiering Controller335 is implemented as part of data center server 130 of FIG. 1. In otherembodiments of the inventive concept, Auto-Tiering controller may beimplemented as a virtual machine, possibly running on one of virtualmachine servers 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3.

FIG. 4 shows different resources available offered by different storagedevices. In FIG. 4, resources 405 are shown. Resource 405 may includethroughput 410, which represents the number of I/O commands that may beperformed in a given amount of time, such as one second (usuallydescribed as I/O Operations Per Second, or TOPS), bandwidth 415, whichreflects how much data may be transmitted in a given unit of time(usually described in terms of megabytes per second, or MBPS), capacity420, which reflects how much data may be stored, and write amplificationfactor 425, which reflect how much additional data is written as aresult of garbage collection operations. Resources 405 may easily beexpanded to include any other desired resources offered by storagedevices storage pool 135 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 shows the files of the virtual machine of FIG. 3 being migratedfrom one storage to another. In FIG. 5, virtual machine file 505 storesdata for a virtual machine. Virtual machine file 505 is currentlyresiding on storage tier 340-3, while virtual machine file 510, for asecond virtual machine, is currently residing on storage tier 340-2. Asshown by arrow 515 virtual machine file 505 may be migrated to eitherstorage tier 340-2 or 340-1, depending on what migration Auto-TieringController 335 of FIG. 3 considers would result in the best improvementfor system 105 of FIG. 1 overall. Note that Auto-Tiering Controller 335of FIG. 3 might decide to not migrate a virtual machine to anotherstorage tier, as shown by the fact that virtual machine file 510 is leftunmigrated on storage tier 340-2.

While it would be nice for there to be an optimal solution to howvirtual machines are assigned to storage tiers that is unchanging (atleast, for as long as the set of virtual machines does not change), inpractice virtual machines may experience changes in workloads, and maycompete for resources with other VMs whose demands may also vary overtime. These changes in workloads and competition may affect whichstorage tier is “best” for a particular virtual machine. For example, atone point in time, one virtual machine might be very busy and requirefast response times from storage pool 135 of FIG. 1, but at anotherpoint in time that same virtual machine might have a lull in activityand not require a high speed storage tier. Thus, there might not be asingle global optimization that works best for all virtual machines allthe time.

Therefore, instead of looking for a single global optimization, it mightbe preferable to look for an optimization that works for an interval oftime, after which a different optimization might be preferable. Forexample, FIGS. 6A-6B show optimal assignments of virtual machines tostorage tiers at different points in time. For example, in FIG. 6A, attime T₀, virtual machine file 505 is optimally in storage tier 340-3 andvirtual machine file 510 is optimally in storage tier 340-1. Incontrast, in FIG. 6B, at time T₁, virtual machine files 505 and 510 areboth optimally in storage tier 340-1.

FIG. 7 shows I/O filter 325 of FIG. 3 injecting latency and determiningperformance data for the virtual machine of FIG. 3. In FIG. 7, I/Ofilter 325 may receive I/O command 705 from app 310 of virtual machine305-3 of FIG. 3. I/O filter 325 may then inject latency 710 into I/Ocommand 705. This injected latency may simulate a slower performingstorage tier, which produces a different average I/O latency for thevirtual machine.

Using injected latency 710, I/O filter 325 may deliver I/O command 705to data center server 130. Data center server 130 may then process I/Ocommand 705 and return response 715. I/O filter 715 may return response715 to app 310 and may measure the average I/O latency of virtualmachine 305-3 of FIG. 3 using injected latency 710, and produceperformance data 720. Auto-Tiering Controller 335 of FIG. 3 may then useperformance data 720 to determine whether there is an advantage tomigrating the virtual machine to another storage tier (either faster orslower, since migrating the virtual machine to a slower storage tiermight free up space for another virtual machine that has a compensatingimprovement in performance).

While FIG. 7 shows I/O filter 325 using injected latency 710 to generateperformance data 710, injected latency 710 has its own overhead.Injected latency 710 may be replaced with a lightweight approach asdesired, provided that performance data 710 may be generated. Forexample, I/O filter 325 might track the number of outstanding I/Ocommands per virtual machine, and use that information to suggestmigrating the virtual machine to another storage tier if the number ofoutstanding I/O commands remains consistently high or keeps increasing.

FIG. 8 shows details of Auto-Tiering Controller 335 of FIG. 3. In FIG.8, Auto-Tiering Controller 335 may include linear regression module 805,resource matrix generator 810, metric converter 815, specializationinformation 820, tier selection module 825, and migration module 830.Linear regression module 805 may take performance data 720 of FIG. 7 andperform a linear regression on the data, producing a linear equationthat estimates the average I/O latency for a virtual machine for thelatency of a given storage tier. As described below with reference toFIG. 10, given injected latencies, average I/O latencies for a givenvirtual machine may be determined, and these data points plotted on agraph. In some embodiments of the inventive concept, these data pointsare approximately linear, and a linear regression may produce anequation that approximates the average I/O latency for a given injectedlatency. Then, knowing the latency of each storage tier, the average I/Olatency for a given virtual machine may be estimated for each storagetier.

Resource matrix generator 810 may take the estimates that may beproduced from the linear regression to correlate each virtual machinewith each storage tier and the resources offered by each storage tier.For example, throughput may be calculated from an average I/O size for avirtual machine and the average I/O latency of the virtual machine, andbandwidth may be calculated from the average I/O size for I/O commandsfrom the VM and the TOPS issued by the VM. Resource matrix generator 810may use metric converter 815 to convert performance data for one metric,such as throughput, into performance data for another metric, such asbandwidth.

Specialization information 820 may indicate what resources are offeredby each storage tier. Specialization information is discussed furtherwith reference to FIG. 11 below.

Tier selection module 825 may take specialization information 820 andthe resource matrix generated by resource matrix generator 810, andselect storage tiers for virtual machines. Then, if a virtual machine isto be migrated from one storage tier to another, migration module 830may perform that migration.

FIG. 9 shows the conversion of performance data 720 of FIG. 7 into amatrix correlating the virtual machines, the storage tiers, and theresources of the storage tiers. In FIG. 9, performance data 720 is shownas a matrix that indicates an average I/O latency for each virtualmachine when using a given storage tier. So, for example, virtualmachine 1 is estimated to have an average latency of 800 μs when usingstorage tier 1, 500 μs when using storage tier 2, and 300 μs when usingstorage tier 3, with performance data for virtual machines 2 and 3providing similar information. The numbers shown in FIG. 8 are merelyexemplary, and do not necessarily reflect real performance values of anyvirtual machines in storage tiers, since actual performance dependsheavily on both the applications being run by a particular virtualmachine and the impact of other virtual machines accessing data from thesame storage pool.

Note that some of the values in performance data 720 are not estimatesbut rather actual values. Specifically, each virtual machine stores itsdata on some storage tier in storage pool 135 of FIG. 1. Thus, for thestorage tier actually storing the data for the virtual machine, theaverage I/O latency in performance data 720 represents the actualaverage I/O latency for the virtual machine on that storage tier, ratherthan an estimate.

Given the estimated average latency for each virtual machine in eachstorage tier, a multidimensional matrix correlating virtual machines,storage tiers, and resources may be generated. This multidimensionalmatrix is shown in FIG. 9 as resource matrix 905. Since it is difficultto show a multidimensional matrix on paper, FIG. 9 shows resource matrix905 as several separate two-dimensional matrices 910, 915, and 920 witheach two-dimensional matrix storing data for an individual storage tier,but this is simply for visualization purposes.

In two-dimensional matrix 910 for storage tier 1, the average I/Olatency from performance data 720 may be converted into a throughputusing the formula

$\frac{10^{6}}{{AverageIOLatency}*{{maxIOPS}\lbrack t\rbrack}};$

that is, 10⁶ (1,000,000) divided by the product of the average I/Olatency for the virtual machine in question using that storage tier andthe maximum TOPS that storage tier may support (this value may be set bythe system administrator to something less than the true maximum offeredby the storage tier: for example, 90% of the true maximum). The value10⁶ may be used because latencies are typically expressed in terms ofmicroseconds

$\left( {{{one}\mspace{14mu} {microsecond}} = \frac{1}{1\text{,}000\text{,}000}} \right).$

Thus, unless a latency of, say, 12 μs were converted to 0.000012seconds, an accurate measure of the average I/O latency should reflectthe change in units occurring in the equation. Throughput may beconverted to bandwidth by multiplying the throughput by the averagewrite size of I/O commands issued by the virtual machine. And thecapacity may be calculated from the storage size of the virtual machinefiles divided by the maximum storage offered by the storage tier (again,the system administrator may set this value to something less than thetrue maximum). These conversions from performance data 720 to the valuesstored in resource matrix 905 may be calculated using metric converter815 of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 shows a linear regression of performance data 720 of FIG. 7. InFIG. 10, performance data for two different virtual machines are shown.For one virtual machine, the data points on the graph may beapproximated by linear regression 1005; for the other virtual machine,the data points on the graph may be approximated by linear regression1010. While FIG. 10 shows data points for only two virtual machines,embodiments of the inventive concept may support any number of virtualmachines for which linear regressions may be computed.

Each data point correlates a particular injected latency with theaverage I/O latency for the virtual machine. So, for example, when thereis no injected latency, the first virtual machine experiences an averageI/O latency of 3000 μs whereas the second virtual machine experiences anaverage I/O latency of approximately 700 μs.

Injected latency works particularly when determining whether the virtualmachine would operate adequately using a lower storage tier (that is, astorage tier with a lower level of performance). After all, the amountof injected latency may be exactly the difference between the currentstorage tier and the target storage tier. But using injected latency itis not possible to emulate a faster storage tier: after all, it is notpossible to inject a negative latency, and a storage tier may notrespond more quickly than it is actually capable of responding. Thesolution is as shown with linear regression 1010. Using informationabout how a virtual machine responds with slower storage tiers, it ispossible to estimate the performance of a faster storage tier using thelinear regression model. Technically, estimating values outside therange of the provided data is called “extrapolation”, as compared with“interpolation”, which is the estimation of a value inside the datarange. But when using a linear regression such as linear regression1010, the computations are the same for interpolation and extrapolation.Thus, using linear regression 1010, it is possible to estimate how avirtual machine would respond when using a faster storage tier.

While it is possible to use only data points corresponding to the actualdifference in latency between storage tiers, the more data points areavailable, the better the estimate provided by linear regression module805 is likely to be. Thus, various different latencies may be injectedusing I/O filter 325 of FIG. 3 to provide as many data points asdesired.

Of course, if every I/O command from the virtual machine were slowedusing injected latency, the virtual machine would not receive the truebenefit of the assigned storage tier. Thus, injected latency may be usedfor only a subset of the I/O commands issued by a virtual machine. Ifthe I/O commands selected for injected latency are selected randomly,then performance data 720 of FIG. 7 should provide meaningful linearregressions 1005 and 1010. Known statistical techniques may be used todetermine the coefficient of variation (and the confidence) for the datapoints. If the confidences in the data points are high enough, thenlinear regressions 1005 and 1010 may be trusted to be accurateestimates. Any desired confidence level may be specified: for example,90% or 95%. How I/O commands are selected for injected latency isdiscussed further with reference to FIG. 13 below.

Note that linear regressions 1005 and 1010 show very different datasets: linear regression 1005 includes a fairly steep slope, whereaslinear regression 1010 includes a fairly shallow slope. Not all virtualmachines respond the same way to changes in the latency of their I/Ocommands: some virtual machines are more sensitive than others. Forexample, the virtual machine that generated the data points resulting inlinear regression 1005 might be running a synchronous application, wherea small change in latency may have a significant impact on theperformance of the application. On the other hand, the virtual machinethat generated the data points resulting in linear regression 1010 mightbe running an asynchronous application, where changes in latency have asmaller impact. Or, linear regression 1005 might be for a virtualmachine requiring a high throughput, whereas linear regression 1010might be for a virtual machine requiring a lower throughput. In asimilar manner, the sensitivity of a virtual machine may affect itslinear regression: more sensitive virtual machines will have steeperslopes, and less sensitive virtual machines will have shallower slopes.A similar concept to sensitivity is whether the virtual machine istightly coupled or not (“tightly coupled” here referring to howsensitive or dependent the virtual machine is on the response time ofthe storage tier, similar to the comparison between synchronous andasynchronous applications): the more tightly coupled a virtual machineis, the more likely it is that the slope of its linear regression willbe steeper. In general, linear regressions with steep slopes, likelinear regression 1005, represent virtual machines that perform betterin faster storage tiers, whereas linear regressions with shallow slopes,like linear regression 1010, represent virtual machines that performadequately in slower storage tiers.

FIG. 11 shows specialization information 820 of FIG. 8 about storagetiers 340-1, 340-2, and 340-3 of FIG. 3. In FIG. 11, specializationinformation 820 is shown as a matrix. The intersection of each storagetier and each resource may specify a value reflecting whether (and/orhow much) that storage tier offers that resource. In some embodiments ofthe inventive concept, as shown in FIG. 11, specialization information830 may use binary information (0 vs. 1, yes vs. no, or any other pairof values), where one value indicates that the storage tier offers thatresource and the other value indicates that the storage tier does notoffer that resource. So, for example, specialization information 820 maybe read as indicating that storage tier 1 offers high throughput andhigh bandwidth, storage tier 2 offers high bandwidth, and storage tier 3offers high capacity.

In other embodiments of the inventive concept, the values inspecialization information 820 need not be limited to binary choices.For example, the values might range from 0 to 1, where 0 indicates thatthe storage tier does not offer that resource, 1 indicates that thestorage tier fully offers that resource, and values in between mayrepresent partial support. So, a value of, say, 0.75 might indicate thata storage tier offers the resource to some extent, but not as well asthe “best” storage tiers, whereas a value of, say, 0.25 might indicatethat a storage tier offers the resource a little better than the “worst”storage tiers (with “best” and “worst” being relative terms).

FIG. 12 shows the computation of a score matrix to be used in migratingvirtual machines 305-1, 305-2, and 305-3 of FIG. 3 to different storagetiers of FIG. 3. By multiplying specialization information 820 withresource matrix 905, score matrix 1205 may be generated that reflectshow well each tier supports each virtual machine. For example, valuesare provided for virtual machine 1, indicating that storage tier 1 is a55% match, storage tier 2 is a 25% match, and storage tier 3 is a 30%match. (Note that the values do not add up to 100% because each valuerepresents how well each storage tier would support the virtual machine,and not how much of a particular virtual machine should be stored in aparticular storage tier.) Entries for the other virtual machines may beinterpreted similarly.

Once score matrix 1205 is generated, tier selection 825 of FIG. 8 mayselect the appropriate tiers for each virtual machine. This selectionmay be accomplished by computing, for each combination of tier andvirtual machine the value

FinalScore=AgingFactor×HistoricalFinalScore+CurrPerfGain−CurrPerfPenalty.

AgingFactor may be a factor used to age older final scores for thecombination of virtual machine and storage tier (to prevent older tierselections from overly biasing the results).CurrPerfGain may be the value drawn from score matrix 1205 of FIG. 12for the combination of virtual machine and tier. CurrPerfPenaltyrepresents the cost of migrating data from one storage tier to another.

Note that, since the virtual machine may reside on a different serverthan that containing storage pool 135 of FIG. 1, CurrPerfPenaltyreflects only the cost of moving the data itself, and does not need tofactor in any impact to the operation of the virtual machine. Putanother way, since the virtual machine resides on virtual machine server110-1 of FIG. 1, no processing power on the server hosting the virtualmachine is needed to perform the data migration: all processing is doneon data center server 130 of FIG. 1. CurrPerfPenalty may be computed bydividing the size of the virtual machine file that needs to be migratedby the lesser of the read throughput rate of the source storage tier andthe write throughput rate of the destination storage tier. Put anotherway, the time required to read the data from the source storage tier andthe time required to write the data to the target storage tier arecompared, and the larger value is selected as the time required toperform the migration, since whichever is slower (reading the sourcestorage tier or writing the destination storage tier) represents thebottleneck in data migration.

Given the final scores for each combination of virtual machine andstorage tier, tier selection module 825 may easily select storage tiersfor each virtual machine to globally optimize the overall performance ofsystem 105 by identifying the assignments of virtual machines to storagetiers that provides the overall greatest improvement to performance ofsystem 105 of FIG. 1, factoring in both performance improvements andperformance declines (by virtual machines being migrated to lesspowerful storage tiers) and the cost of migration.

As hinted at above, performing a single global optimization for all timeassumes that the workload of each virtual machine does not change, andthat the set of virtual machines themselves does not change (no newvirtual machines are added and no existing virtual machines areremoved). In reality, these conditions are unrealistic. Therefore, ifsystem 105 of FIG. 1 were optimized only once, over time the assignmentof virtual machines to storage tiers might no longer be optimal. Thesolution to this concern is to perform optimization at regularintervals, rather than just once. But performing optimization on acontinuous basis is not efficient either: for example, virtual machineI/O commands would have to be subjected to injected latency on acontinuous basis, meaning that no virtual machine would receive the fullbenefit of its storage tier. Thus, rather than performing continuousoptimization, optimization may be performed on a periodic basis. To thatend, the concepts of the migration epoch and the monitoring epoch areintroduced.

Monitoring epochs represent points in time at which I/O filter 325 ofFIG. 3 may inject latency into some I/O commands to determine how thevirtual machine might perform now in different storage tiers. Whenmonitoring epochs begin, I/O filter 325 of FIG. 3 may inject latencyinto a selected number of I/O commands. This number of I/O commands maybe predetermined as a fixed number, or it may set as a percentage (say,1%) of the number of I/O command issued during the previous monitoringepoch, or both (say, the greater of the two values). Monitoring epochsmay occur at regular intervals, such as every 15 minutes, or every hour,or every day, although embodiments of the inventive concept may supportirregular monitoring epochs. Note that there is no simple way to predictwhat the actual workload of the virtual machine will be when amonitoring epoch begins. Thus, triggering I/O filter 325 of FIG. 3 toinject latency into I/O commands at the start of a monitoring epochlikely will select a random set of I/O commands and provide meaningfulperformance data 720 of FIG. 7. Once performance data 720 of FIG. 7 hasbeen generated for virtual machines in a given monitoring epoch,Auto-Tiering Daemon 330 of FIG. 3 may send performance data 720 of FIG.7 to Auto-Tiering Controller 335 of FIG. 3. Alternatively, Auto-TieringDaemon 330 of FIG. 3 may wait until a migration epoch begins and sendperformance data 720 of FIG. 7 at that time.

Migration epochs represent points in time at which Auto-TieringController 335 of FIG. 3 may determine whether virtual machines shouldbe migrated from one storage tier to another. As with monitoring epochs,migration epochs may be set to occur at regular or irregular intervals,such as every day or every week. When a monitoring epoch occurs,Auto-Tiering Controller 335 of FIG. 3 may analyze performance data 720of FIG. 7, generate resource matrix 905 of FIG. 9, compute final scores,select storage tiers for each virtual machine, and migrate virtualmachine data if necessary.

FIG. 13 shows the relationship between monitoring epochs and migrationepochs. In FIG. 13, migration epoch 1305 and monitoring epoch 1310 areshown. As may be seen in FIG. 13, migration epoch 1305 is typicallylonger than monitoring epoch 1310, although embodiments of the inventiveconcept may have migration epoch 1305 be the same or shorter thanmonitoring epoch 1310. In addition, migration epoch 1305 and monitoringepoch 1310 do not need to align, although they may.

FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of an example procedure for I/O filter 325 ofFIG. 3 to inject latency into Input/Output (I/O) commands 705 of FIG. 7to generate performance data 3615 of FIG. 7, according to an embodimentof the inventive concept. In FIG. 14, at block 1405, I/O filter 325 ofFIG. 3 may determine if a new monitoring epoch 1310 of FIG. 13 as begun.If not, then I/O filter 325 of FIG. 3 may wait. Otherwise, at block1410, I/O filter 325 of FIG. 3 may receive some I/O commands 705 of FIG.7 from application 310 of FIG. 3. How many commands are selected forprocessing by I/O filter 325 of FIG. 3 in this manner may vary dependingon system configuration. At block 1415, I/O filter 325 of FIG. 3 mayinject latencies 710 of FIG. 7 into I/O commands 705 of FIG. 7. At block1420, I/O filter 325 of FIG. 3 may send the commands to data centerserver 130 of FIG. 1. At block 1425, I/O filter 325 of FIG. 3 mayreceive response 715 of FIG. 7 from data center server 130 of FIG. 1. Atblock 1425, I/O filter 325 of FIG. 3 may deliver response 715 of FIG. 7to application 310 of FIG. 3. Finally, at block 1430, I/O filter 325 ofFIG. 3 may calculate performance data 720 of FIG. 7 using average I/Olatencies for the virtual machine.

FIGS. 15A-15B show a flowchart of an example procedure for Auto-TieringController 335 of FIG. 3 to manage migration of virtual machines acrossstorage tiers, according to an embodiment of the inventive concept. InFIG. 15A, at block 1505, Auto-Tiering Controller 335 of FIG. 3 maydetermine if a new monitoring epoch 1310 of FIG. 13 has begun. If not,then Auto-Tiering Controller 335 of FIG. 3 may wait. Otherwise, at block1510, Auto-Tiering Controller 335 of FIG. 3 may receive performance data720 of FIG. 7 from Auto-Tiering Daemon 330 of FIG. 3. At block 1515,Auto-Tiering Controller 335 of FIG. 3 may determine if a new migrationepoch 1305 of FIG. 13 has begun. If not, then Auto-Tiering Controller335 of FIG. 3 may wait.

Otherwise, at block 1520, resource matrix generator 810 of FIG. 8 maygenerate resource matrix 905 of FIG. 9 (using, among other components,linear regression module 805 of FIG. 8 and metric converter 815 of FIG.8). At block 1525, tier selection module 825 may assign virtual machinesto storage tiers using resource matrix 905. At block 1530, Auto-TieringController 335 of FIG. 3 may check to see if any of the virtual machinesare being migrated from one storage tier to another. If so, then atblock 1535, migration module 830 may migrate virtual machine file 505 ofFIG. 5 from one storage tier to another.

FIG. 16 shows a flowchart of an example procedure for Auto-TieringController 335 of FIG. 3 to generate resource matrix 905 of FIG. 9,according to an embodiment of the inventive concept. In FIG. 16, atblock 1605, linear regression module 805 of FIG. 8 may perform a linearregression on performance data 720 of FIG. 7 to generate an equationthat estimates how well the virtual machine will perform in each storagetier. At block 1610, Auto-Tiering Controller 335 of FIG. 3 may uselinear regressions 1005 and 1010 of FIG. 10 to estimate how well eachvirtual machine will perform in each storage tier. At block 1615,resource matrix generator 810 may generate performance metrics for thevirtual machine in each storage tier according to each resource. Asshown in block 1620, this may include using metric converter 815 toconvert from one metric, such as throughput, to another metric, such asbandwidth. Block 1620 may be omitted, as shown by dashed line 1625.

As may be seen from the above discussion, embodiments of the inventiveconcept provide significant advantages over conventional tiering andcaching solutions. First, embodiments of the inventive concept supportconsidering multiple resources of the storage tiers. Further, as thenumber of resources may vary, the number of resources may be set to 1,providing backward compatibility for use with conventional HDD storagepools. Second, embodiments of the inventive concept account for thefaster performance of flash storage systems, which conventional tieringand caching solutions ignore. Third, embodiments of the inventiveconcept support both finding a global optimization and adjusting thatglobal optimization over time as changes in the set of existing virtualmachines and the workload of the virtual machines—such as workloadspikes—occur. This compares favorably with conventional solutions, whichgenerally look for local solutions for individual virtual machinesrather than optimizing the system as a whole.

In FIGS. 14-16, some embodiments of the inventive concept are shown. Buta person skilled in the art will recognize that other embodiments of theinventive concept are also possible, by changing the order of theblocks, by omitting blocks, or by including links not shown in thedrawings. All such variations of the flowcharts are considered to beembodiments of the inventive concept, whether expressly described ornot.

The following discussion is intended to provide a brief, generaldescription of a suitable machine or machines in which certain aspectsof the inventive concept may be implemented. The machine or machines maybe controlled, at least in part, by input from conventional inputdevices, such as keyboards, mice, etc., as well as by directivesreceived from another machine, interaction with a virtual reality (VR)environment, biometric feedback, or other input signal. As used herein,the term “machine” is intended to broadly encompass a single machine, avirtual machine, or a system of communicatively coupled machines,virtual machines, or devices operating together. Exemplary machinesinclude computing devices such as personal computers, workstations,servers, portable computers, handheld devices, telephones, tablets,etc., as well as transportation devices, such as private or publictransportation, e.g., automobiles, trains, cabs, etc.

The machine or machines may include embedded controllers, such asprogrammable or non-programmable logic devices or arrays, ApplicationSpecific Integrated Modules (ASICs), embedded computers, smart cards,and the like. The machine or machines may utilize one or moreconnections to one or more remote machines, such as through a networkinterface, modem, or other communicative coupling. Machines may beinterconnected by way of a physical and/or logical network, such as anintranet, the Internet, local area networks, wide area networks, etc.One skilled in the art will appreciate that network communication mayutilize various wired and/or wireless short range or long range carriersand protocols, including radio frequency (RF), satellite, microwave,Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11,Bluetooth®, optical, infrared, cable, laser, etc.

Embodiments of the present inventive concept may be described byreference to or in conjunction with associated data including functions,procedures, data structures, application programs, etc. which whenaccessed by a machine results in the machine performing tasks ordefining abstract data types or low-level hardware contexts. Associateddata may be stored in, for example, the volatile and/or non-volatilememory, e.g., RAM, ROM, etc., or in other storage devices and theirassociated storage media, including hard-drives, floppy-disks, opticalstorage, tapes, flash memory, memory sticks, digital video disks,biological storage, etc. Associated data may be delivered overtransmission environments, including the physical and/or logicalnetwork, in the form of packets, serial data, parallel data, propagatedsignals, etc., and may be used in a compressed or encrypted format.Associated data may be used in a distributed environment, and storedlocally and/or remotely for machine access.

Embodiments of the inventive concept may include a tangible,non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructionsexecutable by one or more processors, the instructions comprisinginstructions to perform the elements of the inventive concepts asdescribed herein.

The various operations of methods described above may be performed byany suitable means capable of performing the operations, such as varioushardware and/or software component(s), modules, and/or module(s). Thesoftware may comprise an ordered listing of executable instructions forimplementing logical functions, and may be embodied in any“processor-readable medium” for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a single ormultiple-core processor or processor-containing system.

The blocks or steps of a method or algorithm and functions described inconnection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodieddirectly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, orin a combination of the two. If implemented in software, the functionsmay be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or codeon a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium. A softwaremodule may reside in Random Access Memory (RAM), flash memory, Read OnlyMemory (ROM), Electrically Programmable ROM (EPROM), ElectricallyErasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), registers, hard disk, a removabledisk, a CD ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art.

Having described and illustrated the principles of the inventive conceptwith reference to illustrated embodiments, it will be recognized thatthe illustrated embodiments may be modified in arrangement and detailwithout departing from such principles, and may be combined in anydesired manner. And, although the foregoing discussion has focused onparticular embodiments, other configurations are contemplated. Inparticular, even though expressions such as “according to an embodimentof the inventive concept” or the like are used herein, these phrases aremeant to generally reference embodiment possibilities, and are notintended to limit the inventive concept to particular embodimentconfigurations. As used herein, these terms may reference the same ordifferent embodiments that are combinable into other embodiments.

The foregoing illustrative embodiments are not to be construed aslimiting the inventive concept thereof. Although a few embodiments havebeen described, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate thatmany modifications are possible to those embodiments without materiallydeparting from the novel teachings and advantages of the presentdisclosure. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to beincluded within the scope of this inventive concept as defined in theclaims.

Embodiments of the inventive concept may extend to the followingstatements, without limitation:

Statement 1. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a system,comprising:

a plurality of storage devices offering a plurality of resources, theplurality of storage devices organized into a plurality of storage tiersand storing first data for a first virtual machine and second data for asecond virtual machine;

a receiver to receive a first Input/Output (I/O) command from the firstvirtual machine, a second I/O command from the second virtual machine,first performance data modelling the performance of the first virtualmachine in the plurality of storage tiers, and second performance datamodelling the performance of the second virtual machine in the pluralityof storage tiers;

a transmitter to transmit a first response to the first I/O command tothe first virtual machine and a second response to the second I/Ocommand to the second virtual machine; and

an auto-tiering controller to select a first storage tier to store thefirst data for the first virtual machine, to select a second storagetier to store the second data for the second virtual machine, and tomigrate at least one of the first data for the first virtual machine tothe first storage tier or the second data for the second virtual machineto the second storage tier responsive to the first performance data andthe second performance data,

wherein the auto-tiering controller is operative to select the firststorage tier to store the first data for the first virtual machine andto select the second storage tier to store the second data for thesecond virtual machine to optimize the performance of all virtualmachines across the plurality of storage tiers,

wherein the auto-tiering controller is operative to factor in a changein performance resulting from migrating the at least one of the firstdata for the first virtual machine to the first storage tier or thesecond data for the second virtual machine to the second storage tierand a migration cost of migrating at least one of the first data for thefirst virtual machine to the first storage tier or the second data forthe second virtual machine to the second storage tier.

Statement 2. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 1, wherein:

the system further comprises a processor; and

the auto-tiering controller includes software running on the processor.

Statement 3. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 1, wherein the auto-tiering controller includes:

a tier selection module to select the first storage tier for the firstvirtual machine and the second storage tier for the second virtualmachine responsive to the first performance data and the secondperformance data; and

a migration module to migrate at least one of the first data for thefirst virtual machine to the first storage tier or the second data forthe second virtual machine to the second storage tier.

Statement 4. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 1, wherein the auto-tiering controller includes aresource matrix generator to generate a resource matrix correlating thefirst virtual machine and the second virtual machine with each of theplurality of storage tiers and a plurality of resources for each of theplurality of storage tiers using the first performance data and thesecond performance data.

Statement 5. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 4, wherein the auto-tiering controller isoperative to select a first storage tier to store the first data for thefirst virtual machine and to select a second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine responsive to the resourcematrix.

Statement 6. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 5, wherein the auto-tiering controller isoperative to select a first storage tier to store the first data for thefirst virtual machine and to select a second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine responsive to the resourcematrix and specialization information for each of the plurality ofstorage tiers.

Statement 7. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 6, wherein the specialization information foreach of the plurality of storage tiers identifies whether each of theplurality of storage tiers supports each of the plurality of resources.

Statement 8. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 7, wherein the plurality of resources includethroughput, bandwidth, capacity, and write amplification.

Statement 9. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 4, wherein the resource matrix generator includesa metric converter to convert a first performance metric for the firstvirtual machine in each of the plurality of storage tiers into a secondperformance metric for the first virtual machine in each of theplurality of storage tiers according to a second resource of theplurality of resources.

Statement 10. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 9, wherein the first performance metric includesa first average I/O latency data for the first virtual machine.

Statement 11. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 1, wherein:

the auto-tiering controller includes a linear regression module toperform a first linear regression on the first performance data and toperform a second linear regression on the second performance data; and

the auto-tiering controller is operative to select the first storagetier to store the first data for the first virtual machine and to selectthe second storage tier to store the second data for the second virtualmachine responsive to the first linear regression and the second linearregression.

Statement 12. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 11, wherein the auto-tiering controller isoperative to select the first storage tier to store the first data forthe first virtual machine and to select the second storage tier to storethe second data for the second virtual machine using estimated averageI/O latencies for the first virtual machine and the second virtualmachine responsive to the first linear regression and the second linearregression.

Statement 13. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 1, wherein:

the first performance data includes first metric performance data usinga first resource; and

the auto-tiering controller includes a metric converter to convert thefirst metric performance data using the first resource into a secondmetric performance data using a second resource.

Statement 14. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 1, wherein the auto-tiering controller isoperative to select a first storage tier to store the first data for thefirst virtual machine, to select a second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine, and to migrate at least oneof the first data for the first virtual machine to the first storagetier or the second data for the second virtual machine to the secondstorage tier responsive to the first performance data and the secondperformance data once per migration epoch.

Statement 15. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 14, wherein:

the first performance data includes first performance data from aplurality of monitoring epochs within the migration epoch; and

the second performance data includes second performance data from theplurality of monitoring epochs within the migration epoch.

Statement 16. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 1, further comprising:

a first virtual machine server storing the first virtual machine; and

a second virtual machine server storing the second virtual machine.

Statement 17. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 16, wherein the second virtual machine server isthe first virtual machine server.

Statement 18. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 16, wherein the first virtual machine serverincludes an I/O filter to generate the first performance data modellingthe performance of the first virtual machine in the plurality of storagetiers.

Statement 19. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 18, wherein the I/O filter is operative to injectlatency into a plurality of I/O commands from the first virtual machine,the plurality of I/O commands including the first I/O command, anddetermine an average I/O latency for the first virtual machineresponsive to the injected latency.

Statement 20. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 19, wherein:

the I/O filter is further operative to inject a plurality of latenciesinto the plurality of I/O commands from the first virtual machine, anddetermine a plurality of average I/O latencies for the first virtualmachine responsive to the injected latencies; and

the auto-tiering controller includes a linear regression module toperform a first linear regression on the plurality of average I/Olatencies for the first virtual machine.

Statement 21. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 18, wherein the first virtual machine serverfurther includes an auto-tiering daemon to collect the performance datafor a plurality of virtual machines from the I/O filter and transmit thecollected performance data to the auto-tiering controller.

Statement 22. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 16, wherein:

the first virtual machine server does not include a first local cache tostore any of the first data for the first virtual machine; and

the second virtual machine server does not include a second local cacheto store any of the second data for the second virtual machine.

Statement 23. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 1, wherein the change in performance resultingfrom migrating the at least one of the first data for the first virtualmachine to the first storage tier or the second data for the secondvirtual machine to the second storage tier includes an improvement inthe performance of the first virtual machine.

Statement 24. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 1, wherein the change in performance resultingfrom migrating the at least one of the first data for the first virtualmachine to the first storage tier or the second data for the secondvirtual machine to the second storage tier includes an decline in theperformance of the first virtual machine.

Statement 25. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 1, wherein the migration cost of at least one ofthe first data for the first virtual machine to the first storage tieror the second data for the second virtual machine to the second storagetier includes a migration time required to migrate the at least one ofthe first data for the first virtual machine to the first storage tieror the second data for the second virtual machine to the second storagetier.

Statement 26. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 1, wherein the second storage tier is the firststorage tier.

Statement 27. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a systemaccording to statement 1, wherein the plurality of storage devices inone of the plurality of storage tiers are homogeneous.

Statement 28. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a method,comprising:

receiving first performance data modelling the performance of a firstvirtual machine in a plurality of storage tiers;

receiving second performance data modelling the performance of a secondvirtual machine in the plurality of storage tiers;

generating a resource matrix correlating the first virtual machine andthe second virtual machine with each of the plurality of storage tiersand a plurality of resources for each of the plurality of storage tiersusing the first performance data and the second performance data;

selecting a first storage tier of the plurality of storage tiers tostore first data for the first virtual machine using the resourcematrix;

selecting a second storage tier of the plurality of storage tiers tostore second data for the second virtual machine using the resourcematrix; and

migrating at least one of the first data for the first virtual machineto the first storage tier or the second data for the second virtualmachine to the second storage tier,

wherein selecting the first storage tier to store the first data for thefirst virtual machine and selecting the second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine optimizes the performance ofall virtual machines across the plurality of storage tiers,

wherein selecting the first storage tier to store the first data for thefirst virtual machine and selecting the second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine factors in a change inperformance resulting from migrating the at least one of the first datafor the first virtual machine to the first storage tier or the seconddata for the second virtual machine to the second storage tier, and

wherein selecting the first storage tier to store the first data for thefirst virtual machine and selecting the second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine factors in a migration costof migrating at least one of the first data for the first virtualmachine to the first storage tier or the second data for the secondvirtual machine to the second storage tier.

Statement 29. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 28, wherein the second storage tier is the firststorage tier.

Statement 30. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 28, wherein receiving first performance data,receiving second performance data, generating a resource matrix,selecting a first storage tier, and selecting a second storage tier isperformed once per migration epoch.

Statement 31. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 30, wherein receiving first performance data andreceiving second performance data is performed once per monitoringepoch.

Statement 32. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 31, wherein the migration epoch includes aplurality of monitoring epochs.

Statement 33. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 28, wherein:

selecting a first storage tier of the plurality of storage tiers tostore first data for the first virtual machine using the resource matrixincludes selecting the first storage tier of the plurality of storagetiers to store first data for the first virtual machine using theresource matrix and specialization information for each of the pluralityof storage tiers; and

selecting a second storage tier of the plurality of storage tiers tostore second data for the second virtual machine using the resourcematrix includes selecting the second storage tier of the plurality ofstorage tiers to store second data for the second virtual machine usingthe resource matrix and the specialization information for each of theplurality of storage tiers.

Statement 34. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 33, wherein the specialization information foreach of the plurality of storage tiers identifies whether each of theplurality of storage tiers supports each of the plurality of resources.

Statement 35. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 34, wherein the plurality of resources includethroughput, bandwidth, capacity, and write amplification.

Statement 36. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 34, wherein the first performance data modellingthe performance of the first virtual machine in the plurality of storagetiers includes a plurality of data points correlating averageInput/Output (I/O) latencies for the first virtual machine with injectedlatencies.

Statement 37. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 36, wherein generating a resource matrixcorrelating the first virtual machine and the second virtual machinewith each of the plurality of storage tiers and a plurality of resourcesfor each of the plurality of storage tiers using the first performancedata and the second performance data includes performing a linearregression of the plurality of data points correlating average I/Olatencies for the first virtual machine with injected latencies.

Statement 38. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 37, wherein generating a resource matrixcorrelating the first virtual machine and the second virtual machinewith each of the plurality of storage tiers and a plurality of resourcesfor each of the plurality of storage tiers using the first performancedata and the second performance data further includes estimating aperformance of the first virtual machine on each of the plurality ofstorage tiers using the linear regression.

Statement 39. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 37, wherein generating a resource matrixcorrelating the first virtual machine and the second virtual machinewith each of the plurality of storage tiers and a plurality of resourcesfor each of the plurality of storage tiers using the first performancedata and the second performance data further includes determiningperformance metrics for the first virtual machine in each of theplurality of storage tiers according to each of the plurality ofresources.

Statement 40. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 39, wherein determining performance metrics forthe first virtual machine in each of the plurality of storage tiersaccording to each of the plurality of resources includes converting afirst performance metric for the first virtual machine in each of theplurality of storage tiers according to a first resource of theplurality of resources into a second performance metric for the firstvirtual machine in each of the plurality of storage tiers according to asecond resource of the plurality of resources.

Statement 41. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 28, wherein receiving first performance datamodelling the performance of a first virtual machine in a plurality ofstorage tiers includes:

receiving a plurality of first I/O commands from the virtual machine atan I/O filter;

injecting a first latency into the plurality of first I/O commands; and

calculating a first average I/O latency for the virtual machine for theplurality of first I/O commands.

Statement 42. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 41, wherein:

injecting a first latency into the plurality of first I/O commandsincludes injecting a plurality of latencies into the plurality of firstI/O commands;

calculating a first average I/O latency for the virtual machine for theplurality of first I/O commands includes calculating a plurality ofaverage I/O latencies for the virtual machine for the plurality of firstI/O commands; and

the method further comprises performing a linear regression of theplurality of average I/O latencies.

Statement 43. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 28, wherein the change in performance resultingfrom migrating the at least one of the first data for the first virtualmachine to the first storage tier or the second data for the secondvirtual machine to the second storage tier includes an improvement inthe performance of the first virtual machine.

Statement 44. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 28, wherein the change in performance resultingfrom migrating the at least one of the first data for the first virtualmachine to the first storage tier or the second data for the secondvirtual machine to the second storage tier includes an decline in theperformance of the first virtual machine.

Statement 45. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes a methodaccording to statement 28, wherein the migration cost of at least one ofthe first data for the first virtual machine to the first storage tieror the second data for the second virtual machine to the second storagetier includes a migration time required to migrate the at least one ofthe first data for the first virtual machine to the first storage tieror the second data for the second virtual machine to the second storagetier.

Statement 46. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes anarticle, comprising a non-transitory storage medium, the non-transitorystorage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed bya machine, result in:

receiving first performance data modelling the performance of a firstvirtual machine in a plurality of storage tiers;

receiving second performance data modelling the performance of a secondvirtual machine in the plurality of storage tiers;

generating a resource matrix correlating the first virtual machine andthe second virtual machine with each of the plurality of storage tiersand a plurality of resources for each of the plurality of storage tiersusing the first performance data and the second performance data;

selecting a first storage tier of the plurality of storage tiers tostore first data for the first virtual machine using the resourcematrix;

selecting a second storage tier of the plurality of storage tiers tostore second data for the second virtual machine using the resourcematrix; and

migrating at least one of the first data for the first virtual machineto the first storage tier or the second data for the second virtualmachine to the second storage tier,

wherein selecting the first storage tier to store the first data for thefirst virtual machine and selecting the second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine optimizes the performance ofall virtual machines across the plurality of storage tiers,

wherein selecting the first storage tier to store the first data for thefirst virtual machine and selecting the second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine factors in a change inperformance resulting from migrating the at least one of the first datafor the first virtual machine to the first storage tier or the seconddata for the second virtual machine to the second storage tier, and

wherein selecting the first storage tier to store the first data for thefirst virtual machine and selecting the second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine factors in a migration costof migrating at least one of the first data for the first virtualmachine to the first storage tier or the second data for the secondvirtual machine to the second storage tier.

Statement 47. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 46, wherein the second storage tier is the firststorage tier.

Statement 48. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 46, wherein receiving first performance data,receiving second performance data, generating a resource matrix,selecting a first storage tier, and selecting a second storage tier isperformed once per migration epoch.

Statement 49. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 48, wherein receiving first performance data andreceiving second performance data is performed once per monitoringepoch.

Statement 50. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 49, wherein the migration epoch includes aplurality of monitoring epochs.

Statement 51. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 46, wherein:

selecting a first storage tier of the plurality of storage tiers tostore first data for the first virtual machine using the resource matrixincludes selecting the first storage tier of the plurality of storagetiers to store first data for the first virtual machine using theresource matrix and specialization information for each of the pluralityof storage tiers; and

selecting a second storage tier of the plurality of storage tiers tostore second data for the second virtual machine using the resourcematrix includes selecting the second storage tier of the plurality ofstorage tiers to store second data for the second virtual machine usingthe resource matrix and the specialization information for each of theplurality of storage tiers.

Statement 52. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 51, wherein the specialization information foreach of the plurality of storage tiers identifies whether each of theplurality of storage tiers supports each of the plurality of resources.

Statement 53. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 52, wherein the plurality of resources includethroughput, bandwidth, capacity, and write amplification.

Statement 54. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 52, wherein the first performance data modellingthe performance of the first virtual machine in the plurality of storagetiers includes a plurality of data points correlating averageInput/Output (I/O) latencies for the first virtual machine with injectedlatencies.

Statement 55. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 54, wherein generating a resource matrixcorrelating the first virtual machine and the second virtual machinewith each of the plurality of storage tiers and a plurality of resourcesfor each of the plurality of storage tiers using the first performancedata and the second performance data includes performing a linearregression of the plurality of data points correlating average I/Olatencies for the first virtual machine with injected latencies.

Statement 56. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 55, wherein generating a resource matrixcorrelating the first virtual machine and the second virtual machinewith each of the plurality of storage tiers and a plurality of resourcesfor each of the plurality of storage tiers using the first performancedata and the second performance data further includes estimating aperformance of the first virtual machine on each of the plurality ofstorage tiers using the linear regression.

Statement 57. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 55, wherein generating a resource matrixcorrelating the first virtual machine and the second virtual machinewith each of the plurality of storage tiers and a plurality of resourcesfor each of the plurality of storage tiers using the first performancedata and the second performance data further includes determiningperformance metrics for the first virtual machine in each of theplurality of storage tiers according to each of the plurality ofresources.

Statement 58. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 57, wherein determining performance metrics forthe first virtual machine in each of the plurality of storage tiersaccording to each of the plurality of resources includes converting afirst performance metric for the first virtual machine in each of theplurality of storage tiers according to a first resource of theplurality of resources into a second performance metric for the firstvirtual machine in each of the plurality of storage tiers according to asecond resource of the plurality of resources.

Statement 59. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 46, wherein receiving first performance datamodelling the performance of a first virtual machine in a plurality ofstorage tiers includes:

receiving a first I/O command from the virtual machine at an I/O filter;

injecting a first latency into the first I/O command; and

calculating a first average I/O latency for the virtual machine for thefirst I/O command.

Statement 60. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 59, wherein:

injecting a first latency into the plurality of first I/O commandsincludes injecting a plurality of latencies into the plurality of firstI/O commands;

calculating a first average I/O latency for the virtual machine for theplurality of first I/O commands includes calculating a plurality ofaverage I/O latencies for the virtual machine for the plurality of firstI/O commands; and

the non-transitory storage medium has stored thereon furtherinstructions that, when executed by the machine, result in performing alinear regression of the plurality of average I/O latencies.

Statement 61. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 46, wherein the change in performance resultingfrom migrating the at least one of the first data for the first virtualmachine to the first storage tier or the second data for the secondvirtual machine to the second storage tier includes an improvement inthe performance of the first virtual machine.

Statement 62. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 46, wherein the change in performance resultingfrom migrating the at least one of the first data for the first virtualmachine to the first storage tier or the second data for the secondvirtual machine to the second storage tier includes an decline in theperformance of the first virtual machine.

Statement 63. An embodiment of the inventive concept includes an articleaccording to statement 46, wherein the migration cost of at least one ofthe first data for the first virtual machine to the first storage tieror the second data for the second virtual machine to the second storagetier includes a migration time required to migrate the at least one ofthe first data for the first virtual machine to the first storage tieror the second data for the second virtual machine to the second storagetier.

Consequently, in view of the wide variety of permutations to theembodiments described herein, this detailed description and accompanyingmaterial is intended to be illustrative only, and should not be taken aslimiting the scope of the inventive concept. What is claimed as theinventive concept, therefore, is all such modifications as may comewithin the scope and spirit of the following claims and equivalentsthereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a plurality of storagedevices offering a plurality of resources, the plurality of storagedevices organized into a plurality of storage tiers and storing firstdata for a first virtual machine and second data for a second virtualmachine; a receiver to receive a first Input/Output (I/O) command fromthe first virtual machine, a second I/O command from the second virtualmachine, first performance data modelling the performance of the firstvirtual machine in the plurality of storage tiers, and secondperformance data modelling the performance of the second virtual machinein the plurality of storage tiers; a transmitter to transmit a firstresponse to the first I/O command to the first virtual machine and asecond response to the second I/O command to the second virtual machine;and an auto-tiering controller to select a first storage tier to storethe first data for the first virtual machine, to select a second storagetier to store the second data for the second virtual machine, and tomigrate at least one of the first data for the first virtual machine tothe first storage tier or the second data for the second virtual machineto the second storage tier responsive to the first performance data andthe second performance data, wherein the auto-tiering controller isoperative to select the first storage tier to store the first data forthe first virtual machine and to select the second storage tier to storethe second data for the second virtual machine to optimize theperformance of all virtual machines across the plurality of storagetiers, wherein the auto-tiering controller is operative to factor in achange in performance resulting from migrating the at least one of thefirst data for the first virtual machine to the first storage tier orthe second data for the second virtual machine to the second storagetier and a migration cost of migrating at least one of the first datafor the first virtual machine to the first storage tier or the seconddata for the second virtual machine to the second storage tier.
 2. Asystem according to claim 1, wherein the auto-tiering controllerincludes: a tier selection module to select the first storage tier forthe first virtual machine and the second storage tier for the secondvirtual machine responsive to the first performance data and the secondperformance data; and a migration module to migrate at least one of thefirst data for the first virtual machine to the first storage tier orthe second data for the second virtual machine to the second storagetier.
 3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the auto-tieringcontroller includes a resource matrix generator to generate a resourcematrix correlating the first virtual machine and the second virtualmachine with each of the plurality of storage tiers and a plurality ofresources for each of the plurality of storage tiers using the firstperformance data and the second performance data.
 4. A system accordingto claim 3, wherein the resource matrix generator includes a metricconverter to convert a first performance metric for the first virtualmachine in each of the plurality of storage tiers into a secondperformance metric for the first virtual machine in each of theplurality of storage tiers according to a second resource of theplurality of resources.
 5. A system according to claim 4, wherein thefirst performance metric includes a first average I/O latency data forthe first virtual machine.
 6. A system according to claim 1, wherein:the auto-tiering controller includes a linear regression module toperform a first linear regression on the first performance data and toperform a second linear regression on the second performance data; andthe auto-tiering controller is operative to select the first storagetier to store the first data for the first virtual machine and to selectthe second storage tier to store the second data for the second virtualmachine responsive to the first linear regression and the second linearregression.
 7. A system according to claim 6, wherein the auto-tieringcontroller is operative to select the first storage tier to store thefirst data for the first virtual machine and to select the secondstorage tier to store the second data for the second virtual machineusing estimated average I/O latencies for the first virtual machine andthe second virtual machine responsive to the first linear regression andthe second linear regression.
 8. A system according to claim 1, whereinthe auto-tiering controller is operative to select a first storage tierto store the first data for the first virtual machine, to select asecond storage tier to store the second data for the second virtualmachine, and to migrate at least one of the first data for the firstvirtual machine to the first storage tier or the second data for thesecond virtual machine to the second storage tier responsive to thefirst performance data and the second performance data once permigration epoch.
 9. A system according to claim 8, wherein: the firstperformance data includes first performance data from a plurality ofmonitoring epochs within the migration epoch; and the second performancedata includes second performance data from the plurality of monitoringepochs within the migration epoch.
 10. A system according to claim 1,further comprising: a first virtual machine server storing the firstvirtual machine; and a second virtual machine server storing the secondvirtual machine.
 11. A system according to claim 10, wherein the firstvirtual machine server includes an I/O filter to generate the firstperformance data modelling the performance of the first virtual machinein the plurality of storage tiers.
 12. A system according to claim 11,wherein the I/O filter is operative to inject latency (710) into aplurality of I/O commands from the first virtual machine, the pluralityof I/O commands including the first I/O command, and determine anaverage I/O latency for the first virtual machine responsive to theinjected latency.
 13. A method, comprising: receiving first performancedata modelling the performance of a first virtual machine in a pluralityof storage tiers; receiving second performance data modelling theperformance of a second virtual machine in the plurality of storagetiers; generating a resource matrix correlating the first virtualmachine and the second virtual machine with each of the plurality ofstorage tiers and a plurality of resources for each of the plurality ofstorage tiers using the first performance data and the secondperformance data; selecting a first storage tier of the plurality ofstorage tiers to store first data for the first virtual machine usingthe resource matrix; selecting a second storage tier of the plurality ofstorage tiers to store second data for the second virtual machine usingthe resource matrix; and migrating at least one of the first data forthe first virtual machine to the first storage tier or the second datafor the second virtual machine to the second storage tier, whereinselecting the first storage tier to store the first data for the firstvirtual machine and selecting the second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine optimizes the performance ofall virtual machines across the plurality of storage tiers, whereinselecting the first storage tier to store the first data for the firstvirtual machine and selecting the second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine factors in a change inperformance resulting from migrating the at least one of the first datafor the first virtual machine to the first storage tier or the seconddata for the second virtual machine to the second storage tier, andwherein selecting the first storage tier to store the first data for thefirst virtual machine and selecting the second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine factors in a migration costof migrating at least one of the first data for the first virtualmachine to the first storage tier or the second data for the secondvirtual machine to the second storage tier.
 14. A method according toclaim 13, wherein: selecting a first storage tier of the plurality ofstorage tiers to store first data for the first virtual machine usingthe resource matrix includes selecting the first storage tier of theplurality of storage tiers to store first data for the first virtualmachine using the resource matrix and specialization information foreach of the plurality of storage tiers; and selecting a second storagetier of the plurality of storage tiers to store second data for thesecond virtual machine using the resource matrix includes selecting thesecond storage tier of the plurality of storage tiers to store seconddata for the second virtual machine using the resource matrix and thespecialization information for each of the plurality of storage tiers.15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the specializationinformation for each of the plurality of storage tiers identifieswhether each of the plurality of storage tiers supports each of theplurality of resources.
 16. A method according to claim 15, wherein thefirst performance data modelling the performance of the first virtualmachine in the plurality of storage tiers includes a plurality of datapoints correlating average Input/Output (I/O) latencies for the firstvirtual machine with injected latencies.
 17. A method according to claim13, wherein receiving first performance data modelling the performanceof a first virtual machine in a plurality of storage tiers includes:receiving a plurality of first I/O commands from the virtual machine atan I/O filter; injecting a first latency into each of the plurality offirst I/O commands; and calculating a first average I/O latency for thevirtual machine for the plurality of first I/O commands.
 18. A methodaccording to claim 13, wherein the migration cost of at least one of thefirst data for the first virtual machine to the first storage tier orthe second data for the second virtual machine to the second storagetier includes a migration time required to migrate the at least one ofthe first data for the first virtual machine to the first storage tieror the second data for the second virtual machine to the second storagetier.
 19. An article, comprising a non-transitory storage medium, thenon-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instructions that,when executed by a machine, result in: receiving first performance datamodelling the performance of a first virtual machine in a plurality ofstorage tiers; receiving second performance data modelling theperformance of a second virtual machine in the plurality of storagetiers; generating a resource matrix correlating the first virtualmachine and the second virtual machine with each of the plurality ofstorage tiers and a plurality of resources for each of the plurality ofstorage tiers using the first performance data and the secondperformance data; selecting a first storage tier of the plurality ofstorage tiers to store first data for the first virtual machine usingthe resource matrix; selecting a second storage tier of the plurality ofstorage tiers to store second data for the second virtual machine usingthe resource matrix; and migrating at least one of the first data forthe first virtual machine to the first storage tier or the second datafor the second virtual machine to the second storage tier, whereinselecting the first storage tier to store the first data for the firstvirtual machine and selecting the second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine optimizes the performance ofall virtual machines across the plurality of storage tiers, whereinselecting the first storage tier to store the first data for the firstvirtual machine and selecting the second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine factors in a change inperformance resulting from migrating the at least one of the first datafor the first virtual machine to the first storage tier or the seconddata for the second virtual machine to the second storage tier, andwherein selecting the first storage tier to store the first data for thefirst virtual machine and selecting the second storage tier to store thesecond data for the second virtual machine factors in a migration costof migrating at least one of the first data for the first virtualmachine to the first storage tier or the second data for the secondvirtual machine to the second storage tier.
 20. An article according toclaim 19, wherein receiving first performance data modelling theperformance of a first virtual machine in a plurality of storage tiersincludes: receiving a first I/O command from the virtual machine at anI/O filter; injecting a first latency into the first I/O command; andcalculating a first average I/O latency for the virtual machine for thefirst I/O command.